We have seen the enemy and it is "the beltway"
I had a very interesting and informative conversation yesterday with an old, dear friend. She is a professional political fundraising consultant who specializes in Congressional campaigns. During the course of our conversation I learned the following:
Elites in the beltway are dependent upon cheap, immigrant labor themselves and fear immigration restrictions because they would be inconvenienced.
My friend has a nanny. A Mexican nanny. I got the impression that this nanny is both illegally here and off the books. She complained that she cannot find a good, legal American nanny or babysitter. "There are no responsible teens or young adults in my area," she said. I opined that, perhaps, there might not be any willing to work at the wage she is willing to pay. Further, I suggested that if it were true that she cannot find someone reliable, even at a working wage, perhaps that is more of a statement about what is being done to our culture...surely continuing to allow foreigners to multiculturalize us will only worsen that situation. She sort of agreed, but she'd "have to think about it. "
Political consultants routinely influence their client legislators by making them fear donor-list atrophy.
My friend consults to some prominent members of Congressman Tancredo's Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus. She says that she constantly has to badger these members because special interests, particularly Big Agriculture, are refusing to pony up to those who supported Sensenbrenner's good bill.
I suggested to her that instead of recommending that congressmen ignore the desires of their constituencies, she should instead be imploring the reticent special interests to "think outside the box" and start promoting govermental incentives for alternatives to imported cheap labor.
"What?," she asked.
Well, if BigAg would start putting ideas on the table instead of simply being obstructionist, perhaps a win-win situation can be had. For instance, I suggested, why Isn't BigAg asking for tax incentives so that they can invest in the research and development into technical innovations that would do away with the need for hordes of stoop-laborers and replace them with more highly skilled (and paid) workers who would operate the new advanced machines that such incentives would surely lead to.
"Wow! I hadn't thought of that," she exclaimed. "I don't have an answer for that."
Well, of course you don't.
I also explained to her that the power of many interests, stuck in pathetic short-term mindsets, is focused incorrectly across the board. Inside the beltway, it is a given that there is only one solution to labor needs: importation of cheap, ignorant and pliable serfs. In reality, there is probably nothing that we cannot solve with our brains if we put them to work instead of being led by fully-blinkered special interests.
Quite frankly, I opined, the status-quo being perpetuated by special interests is horrible for the present and outright un-American for our future.
I think I left her speechless, with a lot to think about. But I think what I learned about the beltway mentality scares me a lot more.
Technorati tags: special interests, beltway
Elites in the beltway are dependent upon cheap, immigrant labor themselves and fear immigration restrictions because they would be inconvenienced.
My friend has a nanny. A Mexican nanny. I got the impression that this nanny is both illegally here and off the books. She complained that she cannot find a good, legal American nanny or babysitter. "There are no responsible teens or young adults in my area," she said. I opined that, perhaps, there might not be any willing to work at the wage she is willing to pay. Further, I suggested that if it were true that she cannot find someone reliable, even at a working wage, perhaps that is more of a statement about what is being done to our culture...surely continuing to allow foreigners to multiculturalize us will only worsen that situation. She sort of agreed, but she'd "have to think about it. "Political consultants routinely influence their client legislators by making them fear donor-list atrophy.
My friend consults to some prominent members of Congressman Tancredo's Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus. She says that she constantly has to badger these members because special interests, particularly Big Agriculture, are refusing to pony up to those who supported Sensenbrenner's good bill.I suggested to her that instead of recommending that congressmen ignore the desires of their constituencies, she should instead be imploring the reticent special interests to "think outside the box" and start promoting govermental incentives for alternatives to imported cheap labor.
"What?," she asked.
Well, if BigAg would start putting ideas on the table instead of simply being obstructionist, perhaps a win-win situation can be had. For instance, I suggested, why Isn't BigAg asking for tax incentives so that they can invest in the research and development into technical innovations that would do away with the need for hordes of stoop-laborers and replace them with more highly skilled (and paid) workers who would operate the new advanced machines that such incentives would surely lead to.
"Wow! I hadn't thought of that," she exclaimed. "I don't have an answer for that."
Well, of course you don't.
I also explained to her that the power of many interests, stuck in pathetic short-term mindsets, is focused incorrectly across the board. Inside the beltway, it is a given that there is only one solution to labor needs: importation of cheap, ignorant and pliable serfs. In reality, there is probably nothing that we cannot solve with our brains if we put them to work instead of being led by fully-blinkered special interests.
- In construction, government should be helpful to those companies that invent and employ new methods that make us less dependent on direct human action. American ingenuity is responsible for our having little robots scooting around on Mars doing all sorts of marvelous things, but American business cannot think and invent its way out an addiction to cheap dregs of the third world? That's absurd.
- Our restaurants should be giving to our public schools, training America's youth and giving them entry-level skills that would not only support the restaurant industry, but also facilitate a knowledgeable and appreciative future clientele.
- Our government's response, every time someone insists that we need imported cheap labor, should be "no, we're Americans, dammit..bring us some new ideas and we'll help you out!"
Quite frankly, I opined, the status-quo being perpetuated by special interests is horrible for the present and outright un-American for our future.
I think I left her speechless, with a lot to think about. But I think what I learned about the beltway mentality scares me a lot more.
Technorati tags: special interests, beltway
